Inspiration

I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again: traveling (alone) is the best education a girl can get. Period. I ask myself repeatedly what the purpose of all my years in school were...particularly those last, very expensive, four at university. Traveling has taught me more in eight months than I ever learned in my twenty-three years of schooling. It was a crash course experience, for which I dove [...]

The amount of conversations revolving around my love life are seemingly endless. I meet people and it takes them all of 5 minutes to ask me why I'm alone. Why I don't have a man by my side. These little chats have always been a part any given day during my single times, but they have become particularly frequent since I began traveling. Why are people so damn concerned? Everyone wants to [...]

My Dearest Europe, I came to you with a broken heart and a tortured soul. I had lost faith in myself, the rest of the world and the will to live. My being was beyond bruised and damaged from years of self-neglect. It was all so wrong. When I decided to run to you, I did not know the extent to which you would affect me. I was a lost little [...]

"I had my phone stolen in Barcelona.” I have become the one millionth person to utter these words. How cliche. I knew better, I really did, but that didn’t stop me from running around the El Gothic district drinking too much wine and setting my phone down places I shouldn’t have. Nope, the warnings never much did it for me. I have always had to learn things the hard way. My [...]

Barcelona ❤️ August 27th, 2015 "You brave young lady!" the woman at my hostel says to me over sangria. "That must be very scary for you." She's genuinely impressed and concerned alike, and I'm charmed by her caring demeanor. Apparently I am a fragile looking thing to the outside world. But that's not how I feel inside. Inside I feel strong, like nothing could ruin this journey for me, and I [...]

August 14/15. 2015 I’m on the plane and just woke up from a four hour nap. I have to ask the rude French lady sitting next to me to let me out (again) to use the restroom. I’m really not feeling well. A mixture of nausea and dizziness are slowly taking over my being and I’m not quite sure how to subside it. Breathing exercises and small sips of water will [...]

August, 14th, 2015 It’s one o’clock in the morning. I can’t sleep. My apartment is completely empty, except for a beast of a backpack I bought the other day for $320 at REI, a carry on bag, a pillow, and my best friend sleeping on the living room floor. She’s such a good friend to stay here and wait until it’s time to drop me off at the airport. Thank you [...]

I'm just a girl in the midst of a semi-quarter-life crisis. (Yes, it's a thing.) For the first 1/4 of my life, I followed all the "rules" from a young age. I saw what I thought the world wanted me to be, I tried to achieve the ideals society set for me. Growing up, I learned how to fit in with the "cool kids" - forcing myself into a little box that [...]